Having spent a considerable amount of my time in standardisation, I have developed my own definition of standard: “the documented agreement reached by a group of individuals who recognise the advantage of all doing certain things in an agreed way”. Indeed, I believe that, if we exclude some areas such as safety, in matters of standards the authority principle should not hold. Forcing free people to do things against their interest, is an impossible endeavour. If doing certain things in…

Introduction In a technology space moving at an accelerated pace like the one MPEG has the task to develop standards for, it is difficult to have a clear plan for the future (MPEG has a 5-year plan, though). Still, when MPEG was developing the Multimedia Linking Application Format (MLAF), it “discovered” that it had developed or was developing several standards – MPEG-7, Compact descriptors for visual search (CDVS), Compact descriptors for video analysis (CDVA) and Media Orchestration. The collection of these…

Introduction There are many definitions of standard. In the Webster’s you find a definition of standard as “Something that is established by authority, custom or general consent as a model or example to be followed”, an oldish definition that thinks that people must be directed to their good. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica you find “(A technical specification) that permits large production runs of component parts that are readily fitted to other parts without adjustment”, a definition driven by the idea…